Ball and Chain
by HerRenegadeHeart
Summary: Finally, Juliet cocked her head slightly to the side and settled on, "Am I missing something? Or perhaps the brain damage has finally caught up with you?" Magnum chuckled and rose back up on to two feet. "I need you to be my wife," he told her. (Part 9 of the Defenseless Series)


_"I tell myself I have to build defenses_  
_'Cause once you are in love, you are defenseless_  
_Everything was easy when it meant less_  
_But once you are in love, you are defenseless."_

Askjell _\- To Be Loved ft. AURORA_

**#9 of the Defenseless Series**

* * *

It started with a ring… and a frown of colossal confusion as Higgins tried to understand why for the love of all things Thomas Magnum was on one knee in the middle of the study.

As Juliet just stood there, mouth slightly agape with all the burning questions suddenly in her mind, Magnum's eyes kept darting back and forth between her and the two softly-growling Dobermans lying beneath her desk. He shifted uncomfortably.

Finally, Juliet cocked her head slightly to the side and settled on, "Am I missing something? Or perhaps the brain damage has finally caught up with you?"

Magnum chuckled and rose back up on to two feet. "I need you to be my wife," he told her. "Or, well, my fiancée."

She squinted an eye at him. "Thank you, I'll pass."

He ignored her and jumped right into the details. "My client's sister and her fiancé are missing and when I started poking around, I found three missing couples, all connected to the same wedding planner."

Higgins frowned at that. "Wouldn't HPD be looking into it if four couples have gone missing?"

"They are," Magnum replied, "but now I am, too. My client heard about my reputation and asked if I could look into it as well."

Higgins thought about making a comment about his "very special reputation", but then decided she didn't have the energy for it today. "And your plan is to - what? Put a ring on my finger, have us parade around in front of the wedding planner, and just _hope_ he or she attempts to kidnap us?"

Magnum paused, then shrugged. "Well… yeah..."

Higgins resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose and sigh. "It is ever the wonder you solve anything, Magnum."

"Look, it's the one lead this case has," he defended, "and I figure if we go in there just asking questions like a cop, we're not going to get anywhere. But we go in as potential clients…" He trailed off, a cheeky grin sliding across his face.

Eyes rolling skyward, Higgins sighed. "I'm going to regret this, I can already feel it."

Magnum's grin only got wider.

* * *

She most definitely regretted it. She'd regretted it the moment Magnum had informed her that from what he could tell, the only other commonality between all the missing couples was that according to friends and family, they were all "obnoxiously in love" and that the two of them should "aim for that, too." She'd regretted it when Maple McClintock, the wedding planner, had grinned brightly at them in an almost desperate way when they stepped through her front door. She'd regretted it when Maple insisted on taking them on a tour of potential venues. She'd regretted it when they'd been made to meet the "Maple recommended!" caterer, photographer, DJ, florist, and officiant.

Through it all, though, the thing Juliet regretted the most was that Magnum's plan had actually worked. She knew that if they made it out alive, Magnum would never let her forget it.

"If you say 'I told you so'..." she warned him.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied.

She gave him a disbelieving look before returning her attention to their present situation. After being caught off guard and gassed, the pair had woken in what seemed to be a basement. They were facing each other, both in chairs that were bolted into the floor. Their wrists were tethered down to the arms of the chairs with handcuffs and their feet were shackled to the floor with thick chains.

"Us being trapped together is becoming a theme," Higgins muttered as she tugged at the wrist restraints.

Magnum paled slightly under the dim fluorescent light. They both remembered the last time they had woken up tied to chairs. A twisted Russian psychopath had almost killed Higgins in front of Magnum.

"Let's not have a repeat of last time, okay?" Magnum said, a tightness in his voice that did not escape Juliet's notice. She knew he still felt a good deal of guilt over the last time even though intellectually they both knew what had happened hadn't been his fault.

Before Higgins could reply, they heard the sound of a door opening and then descending footfalls coming down the stairs.

"Ah, you're awake," the man said as he reached the bottom. "You never can be exactly sure. People react differently, you see."

It was the photographer, Emmett Oxford. Not the wedding planner after all.

"Emmett, what's going on, man?" Magnum asked.

"I'm going to help you," the man replied.

Higgins could tell from the look in his eye that Emmett was not quite all there.

"You know," Magnum continued, glancing at Higgins, "I think we're actually pretty good. How about you just let us go?"

Emmett didn't even seem to hear Magnum. He just puttered around at a workbench in the corner of the basement, his back to the them, doing… something.

"You can't fake it, you know. You can't fake love, not really. If you know what to look for, you can always spot a fake," he rambled. "I didn't know though, I didn't know how to do that until it was too late. I really, really thought Mina loved me. But then she left and I knew."

Higgins and Magnum looked at each other again. There was something unnerving about the way he spoke.

"I can see it now, though," Emmett said as he turned around to face them. "I can see the lies. I'm going to help you so that you know without a doubt that you love each other."

That was when Higgins noticed the two needles in his hands. Magnum seemed to notice as well because she saw him immediately double his efforts to find a way out of his bindings.

Higgins tried to draw Emmett's attention to her instead, asking, "Emmett, where are Dana Mitchell and Benjamin St. Clair?"

He looked at her and his face grew stony. "They lied." Without another word, he crossed to her and pushed one of the needles into the side of her neck. Juliet heard Magnum shout, "No!" just as she felt the burn of the injection.

She didn't notice anything different at first, just a little tingling, but as she watched Emmett inject Magnum as well, she felt it finally reach her head and everything began spinning. "What… was that?" she asked.

"Sorry for the sting," Emmett said, "I just gave you a little something to loosen your tongues. If you lie, I will know, but this will also make lying just a little bit harder."

The world twisted and swirled for some time, but when she came back to herself, she noticed that both she and Magnum had been hooked up to what looked like jury rigged polygraph machines.

Emmett looked at her and nodded as if satisfied. "Alright, we're going to begin. Remember, tell the truth." He looked at Magnum. "A few questions to get a base read. Is your name Thomas?"

Magnum frowned. "Emmett, we're not going—" His words stopped short and he suddenly seized as if being electrocuted.

And then Higgins realized he _was _being electrocuted. Before she could protest, however, it stopped and Magnum gasped.

"Let's try again. Is your name Thomas?"

"Y-yes," Magnum got out, chest heaving. They had used their first names as part of their fake identities just because it was easier to remember, only changing their last names.

"Good."

"Are you a resident of the state of Hawaii?"

"Yes."

"Do you have brown hair?"

"Dark brown, but technically yes."

He asked Magnum a couple more questions before switching to Higgins. As he asked, she struggled against whatever he had injected her with. If felt like being drunk and losing all inhibitions, like that weird sensation when you know you shouldn't say anything, but you just can't help yourself.

After he was satisfied with the base questions, Emmett took a breath and nodded again. "Okay. Let's move on. Thomas," Magnum frowned at being addressed, "Have you ever lied to Juliet?"

Magnum met Higgins' eyes. "Yes."

"Did you regret it?"

"Not when it was to protect her."

"What about when it wasn't to protect her? Did you regret it?"

Magnum faltered, which must have been seen as a lie because he suddenly seized again as electricity coursed through him.

"Thomas!" Juliet struggled against her bonds.

"Let's try again," Emmett said as the current was turned back off. "Did you regret lying to her during those times when it wasn't done to protect her?"

"No," Magnum rasped out.

Again, electricity tore through him.

"You're going to kill him!" Juliet shouted.

"No, he's going to kill himself," Emmett stated plainly before returning his attention to Magnum once the electricity had stopped. "Now, that wasn't the whole truth, Thomas," he sing-songed. "Tell us what is."

Magnum met Higgins' eyes for a moment before dropping his gaze.

"Thomas…" Emmett warned.

"It isn't exactly regret," Magnum strained to get out. "But there are things that I can't say… because it's never the right time."

Juliet's chest constricted just so at that. The things unspoken were often the hardest to live with, she knew that from personal experience.

"Things like what?" Emmett asked.

Higgins saw the struggle in Magnum's features and thought for a moment that he was going to hesitate again and get himself electrocuted, but at the very last second, he said, "Things like I worry about her."

"Worry about her betraying you?" Emmet's eyes tracked over to hers and his expression darkened.

"No, I worry about her getting killed because my mistakes. I worry about her leaving."

"Thomas…" she whispered, drawing his eyes back up to hers. She could see the pain there and it made her heart ache.

"Hmm." Emmett nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "Would you hurt someone protect Juliet?"

This time there was no pause. "Yes."

"Would you kill for Juliet?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever hurt _her_?"

Higgins saw that guilt flash across Magnum's face again and not for the first time, she wished she could convince him to let go of it. "Not intentionally."

"Will you hurt her again in the future?"

"Not intentionally," he repeated.

"Will you ever leave her?"

"No, not if I can help it," Magnum whispered. He kept his gaze steady on her and she trembled. This was one of the most terrifying and most intimate things she had ever experienced.

Emmett took a breath and nodded once more, seemingly checking off some sort of mental list. "Alright, last question."

Juliet felt relieved. That meant that the focus would be off Magnum and he would be safe from pain for the time being.

"Do you love Juliet?"

The question took the air from her lungs. Intellectually, she understood that he meant did Thomas Jones love Juliet Hargrove, their undercover personas, but as Magnum stared into her eyes, she saw no barriers, no deceit, only _him_. She saw Thomas Magnum with his emotions laid bare before her.

Magnum swallowed, his gaze unwavering, then opened his mouth to reply.

Before a word could be said, there was a loud thud followed directly by a splintering sound - the sound of a door above being kicked in. A split second later, a familiar voice yelled out, "This is HPD!"

Emmett's expression turned furious and he looked at the two of them, saying, "That wasn't the right answer."

Pain ripped through Higgins as he threw both switches, sending electricity tearing through her and Magnum's body. All of her muscles contracted in agony, making her feel like she was going to snap in half. It felt like it went on for forever before the darkness took her.

…..

….

…

..

.

"C'mon, Higgy, come on back," a warm voice cajoled.

Higgins groaned, her entire body aching.

"Attagirl," another voice croaked.

She knew that voice.

_Magnum_.

She dragged her eyes opened and immediately looked for him. "Magnum," she murmured.

"Right here," he said, drawing her attention to the left. He was on the ground, sitting up against the side of the chair he'd been shackled to. Rick was next to him, hand to Magnum's wrist, seeming taking his pulse.

That was when she realized she was also on the floor and T.C. was next to her, and that Katsumoto was there, too, with his men and they were taking a handcuffed Emmett up the basement stairs.

With some effort and some help from T.C., Higgins pushed herself up into a sitting position as well. T.C. kept a supporting arm wrapped around the back of her shoulders. She frowned at both the throbbing in her head and the confusion she felt at the arrival of their friends. "How did you find us?" she asked, voice raspy just as Magnum's was.

Rick and T.C. turned to Magnum and he gave her something of a sheepish look. He pointed at her hand. _The ring_. "There's, uh, a tracking chip in the ring."

She just stared at him.

"I told Rick and T.C. to use it to find us if I didn't check in with them every hour."

Juliet ran the tip of her tongue over the bottom of her front teeth in irritation. "And you didn't think to tell me?"

Magnum winced slightly. "You thought my plan was stupid."

Translation: he hadn't wanted her to know he'd made that kind of effort if his plan did fail.

She sucked in a breath through her nose and counted a few seconds before asking, "Where did you even get an engagement ring with a tracking chip in it?"

"He got it from me…" Rick said, raising his hand. "Or well, I got it from a buddy of mine and then Thomas got it from me."

Higgins met Magnum's gaze and cocked her head slightly to the side as she asked, "I suppose this was one of those lies that wasn't for my protection?"

Magnum's looked immediately flustered. "I never _told_ a lie," he countered.

"Omission, Magnum," she returned.

"Alright," Rick interrupted, "I think it's time we got you two to the hospital."

"I'm fine," Higgins and Magnum said simultaneously.

Rick and T.C. looked at each other. "Of course you are," Rick chimed.

"But you're still going," T.C. stated as he stood and began helping Juliet to her feet. "Up we go."

With as sore as they were, it took them a minute to get up the stairs, through the house, and outside. EMS was there and the paramedics insisted on checking them first before transferring them to the hospital.

Higgins and Magnum sat next to each other at the back of the ambulance, blankets wrapped around them. After a few minutes of silence, Magnum looked at her and said, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Higgins met his gaze. What she saw in his eyes made her wonder whether he was talking about the ring or something more…

_END_

* * *

_Author's Notes_: I feel like I need to write a whole series on just moments where Higgins and Magnum stare at each other, hahaha. EPIC STARING. Oh, these poor babies. They just need all the huggles.


End file.
